One of my university lecturers once told me that I should seriously consider writing for a horticultural magazine. However, I think that I would probably be very hard pushed to find any publication that would be happy to receive my entry for their October issue in early December. Let’s leave it there shall we.
The seasonal formalities really begin here. Following on from September, cutting back, tidying up and major clearance projects are the order of the day. In this respect, Tresco Abbey Garden is much the same as any other garden in and around the UK at this time of year, although there are significantly fewer leaves falling, as many of the large trees in the garden are evergreen and therefore leaf raking fortunately doesn’t feature too heavily. (A job which I know some of my friends in other gardens across the country have been enjoying tremendously). A large proportion of our time during the month was devoted to hedging. My confidence with this grew very quickly and once I started looking down, I discovered that the job offered some very impressive views of the garden that few have the pleasure of experiencing. The image above was taken from the top of the Scillonian hedge; the tallest of all the hedges in the garden at somewhere between 30 and 35 feet in height. I wish I had had a wide angle lens with me at the top of the ladder to fit in the amazing view across the treetops to the sea and the islands beyond. You’ll just have to imagine it. I have recently been given a much better camera so when the sun comes back I will do another post showing some of the more spectacular views across Tresco.
The Isles of Scilly are one of the last bastions of the Elm tree in the UK. Completely unaffected by Dutch Elm Disease, three species of Elm grow in and around the garden. These are the English Elm (Ulmus procera), the Cornish Elm (U. minor subsp. angustifolia) and the Wych Elm (U. glabra). One of the more major projects of the month was the pollarding of two small belts of Elm and Olearia trees, in order to improve views from the Abbey. For those of us not trained in how to use a chainsaw, this meant a lot of groundwork, removing brush to create access and then clearing and chipping an enormous amount of felled wood. Once the job was complete, Andy our head gardener took time to show us the basics of tree climbing. The climbing method that we were using was the ‘thrusting method’ which kept us mildly entertained for a short while. Once we had pulled ourselves back together, the method involved throwing a rope over a suitable branch and attaching it back to the climber through a friction hitch. The climber then pulls down on the rope, while simultaneously thrusting upwards with the hips and sliding the friction hitch up the rope being pulled to hold the weight. The position is fairly horizontal and the climber is effectively able to walk up the trunk of the tree. I found this quite easy and a lot of fun. I look forward to climbing something bigger next time.
One of my favourite jobs of the month was cutting back and digging out a large amount of Giant Gunnera (Gunnera tinctoria). I find working with Gunnera very satisfying as it has such an instant impact and makes you feel like you’ve done far much more work than you actually have. I was unaware at the time I was working with them, but apparently the leaf stalks of this particular species are edible and are cultivated as a food crop in South America. I wish I had known, I could have made a massive crumble.
October also saw the arrival of two visiting student gardeners. Laura, who has previously worked at the beautiful West Dean garden in West-Sussex will be with us for a couple of months and Joe took a well earned break from trimming Yew topiary at Levens Hall in the Lake District, to come and trim Evergreen Oak and Olearia hedges on Tresco. You can read Joe’s blogs about his experience here.
The Scilly Gardener 